About The Author

I am an only child born a Catholic. I thought to myself as a child, if church was so important, then why did most people only go 2 times a year? Christmas and Easter being the main 2 or if there was a marriage or funeral.

As time passed, around 8th grade I quit going to the Catholic church Saturday class. I hated going there. It was cold and not friendly but after going there for 8 years you kind of learn some stuff whether you want to or not. I learned that if I did good things, I would go to heaven and if I did bad things I would go to hell. I even heard I would go to Purgatory to burn off my sins but they couldn’t quite show me anything from the Bible. I was never quite sure what would happen if I died.

Throughout the next 4-5 years I got involved with the wrong crowd. I wanted to do things that would purely make me happy: make money by stealing anything I could and reselling it, party, selling weapons to classmates at school and to friends of friends, and shoplift every chance I had. I also spent a good part of my time with drug dealers and users. I used to justify this to myself by reminding myself that I’m not doing or selling the drugs so therefore I am better then these guys, and if I die I surely wouldn’t go to hell.

In the twelfth grade, there was a kid who I was good friends with. He wasn’t the best influence on my life, but he told me about God and the Bible every now and then. I had no real interest in it and told me we could be friends, but he was to keep that Bible nonsense to himself. One day in January of 1995, he invited me to go ice skating with his youth group. I loved ice hockey and skating and thought it would be a great way to go for cheap.

I went and saw things I never saw before. Happy kids! They had this joy and happiness that I wanted for so long. Everything I tried to do in my life from steal and rob and sell would make me happy but it would never last. These kids had a lasting joy! I was so intrigued by this.

The next day I went to church to see what it was all about. I went for the next 2 weeks actually and kept hearing the gospel preached.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,”
I knew that I was a sinner already, but the Bible said all of us are in the world. I was amazed!

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
When I heard this it blew my mind! Now I knew I was a sinner and the payment for my sins was eternity in hell. That blew the Catholic doctrine away. No longer was it based on works or good deeds or being baptized as a child. It was by faith in Jesus and accepting his gift and his payment for my sins.
The 2nd half of the verse told me it was a gift and I needed to accept it for it to be mine. I heard the truth: God loves you and cares for each and everyone of you so much that he sent his only son Jesus Christ to come to the earth and die as a payment, a sinless sacrifice for your sins. He lived a sinless life and his blood was shed as payment for our sins. His death paid for them but we need to accept that payment on our behalf. We need to recognize and ask him to forgive us of all our sins, ask him to save our soul, and place all our faith in trust in Him that he will do that. I let the Bible speak for itself. They were Biblical facts that couldn’t be changed whether I believed them or not! I knew I needed it and when I heard:

Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,”
I knew that meant anyone and I wanted to get saved.

It was 2/8/95. I was watching Unsolved Mysteries on NBC after a Wednesday night at church. There was a murder mystery on at the time. I thought if I was to die tonight or if someone pulled something on me over one of my weapon sales, I could die and go to hell forever. I knew I needed to get saved. That night I prayed and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and save my soul. That night he did just that. When I got on my knees to pray I was hell bound sinner but when I was done and got up I knew for a fact I was on my way to heaven whenever that may be. I have full confidence in the eternal security the Bible speaks of and I know that I can not lose my salvation ever. God will never break any of His promises.

January 1999 I went to Maranatha Baptist Bible College and it blew my mind. I went with my best friend Jayson Toth and we soon sank our teeth into the ministry opportunities.

On September 9, 1999 I went to Cook County Jail for the first time with my roommate Jeff Hawes and four others. That was the first step I took in the direction of the prison ministry.

The Bible says "O taste and see that the Lord is good." And that is just what I did. I sank my teeth into this prison ministry thing and was amazed at how much fertile ground there was. Hardened criminals wanting to do right and people with no direction wanting to follow God. I can not explain the feeling I get when I see a man who gave his life to God in prison and then the chips fall where he makes the decision to either lie and get two years in jail or tell the truth and get up to 19 years… and because he decided to follow God and doesn’t want to sin any longer, he tells the truth. My pal Jaime Z. from CCJ did just that and is now in the middle of that sentence. He did what pleased God.

I saw this week after week and after 5 years of seeing some of the greatest come back stories lived out, hearing some of the best testimonials I was hooked. Dennis Rew, Luke Kinney, Mike Rudolph, and a bunch of my other close friends went to the jail pretty regularly and they got to share in this amazing soul stirring experience too.

I finished out my time in Wisconsin and now am back in New York working on multiple books and still working with the death row population, and other inmates spread around the world.